Congress bans federal officials from betting on their own policy decisions
H.R. 7004 — Public Integrity in Financial Prediction Markets Act of 2026 · Filed by Ritchie Torres (D-NY) · 45 cosponsors · Introduced Jan 9, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill makes it illegal for federal elected officials, congressional staff, political appointees, and executive-branch employees to trade prediction market contracts (bets on future political or policy outcomes) when they possess or could reasonably obtain material nonpublic information about those outcomes through their official duties. The ban targets insider trading in political prediction markets—preventing officials from profiting on advance knowledge of government decisions.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is a straightforward prohibition on a specific form of insider trading—federal officials trading prediction market contracts on the basis of material nonpublic information obtained through their official duties. This is a standard conflict-of-interest and insider-trading control.
What the text implies
- The bill does not define enforcement mechanisms, penalties, or which agency enforces the prohibition—implementation details are absent, creating potential gaps in compliance and deterrence.
- The phrase 'may reasonably obtain' in subsection (a)(2) is subjective and may create litigation over what information an official could have accessed, potentially leading to disputes over enforcement.
The full analysis lists 4 implications of this text.
Who it affects
Citizens benefit from a reduction in conflicts of interest and insider trading by government officials. Officials trading on advance knowledge of policy decisions they influence creates a perverse incentive structure and undermines public trust in government impartiality.